A Summer Apart
by Silent Amethyst
Summary: The now and forever inseparable duo must face a second summer apart. Can they take it, or will one of them decide to go after the other before the summer is over?
1. Chapter 1

**A Summer Apart**

_**Chapter 1: Night Before Departure**_

Kim and Ron sat in Kim's room having their second to last conversation before Kim would be leaving to Florida. After the unforgettable night last week where they shared their first real kiss, they had been nearly inseparable. After hearing that Kim would be leaving for the summer, they realized that all their plans for that summer went right down the toilet.

As they talked, Kim finished her packing, not enthusiastically, and Ron sat down watching her since he had nothing better to do.

"I wish you could go." Kim sighed. "It will be boring there without someone to talk to. I mean, like there are only going to be a bunch of old people there talking about what they used to have to do and that kids these days have hardly anything to do and that they don't even appreciate that. I have no idea how many times I've heard that."

"Well, umm… we can still talk can't we?" Ron replied. He hoped that was what she wanted to hear. It wasn't.

"Yes, but it's not the same." Kim said dissatisfied, as she sat on top of her suitcase in an attempt to close it.

"Here, let me help with that." Said Ron, getting up to help Kim shut the case.

"Thanks." She replied rolling onto the bed.

"No problem." He said sitting down beside her.

The two of them sat there silently for a couple of minutes. Kim was thinking about what she did the previous summer and Ron was wondering what he would do this summer.

The silence was broken when Kim's mom knocked on the door.

"You guys want some pizza?"

"Sure." They said together.

"Jinx!" Kim yelled. "You owe me … you owe me a night out alone.""

Ron sat there acting like he was thinking when Kim already knew he'd agree. "Ok." He answered.

"I'll be right back." Said Ms. Possible as she closed the door behind her. After seeing them so happy together, she hated having to separate them.

When she went back up to the room to give them their pizza, she heard laughing through the door. When she opened it, she saw that they were making faces at each other. Seeing this made her feel even guiltier. After a moment, Kim and Ron stopped, noticing she was there.

"Oh, sorry… here you go." She said walking over to the bed.

"Thanks, Mom." Kim replied.

"Mmhmm." She answered, her mind else where. Then she walked back downstairs.

For the next two hours, Kim and Ron just sat on the bed, not paying attention to the time, but finding some way to make each other laugh.

Around 9:30, Kim's mom came back up to the room, this time to tell Ron that his mom called and wanted him to come home.

"Bye." Said Kim, remembering that she wouldn't be having this much fun for a while.

"See ya." Ron replied as he walked out the door.

"Do I really have to go, Mom?" Kim said as soon as she heard the front door shut.

"I'm sorry, but yes." She replied, guilt once again flooding back to her, only because she knew how her daughter felt.

Kim replied with a groan.

"Well, what about you get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day."

"Fine." Kim answered, mumbling to herself, "Yea right."

For the rest of the night, Kim just sat in bed. She couldn't sleep no matter how much she tried, which she really didn't. If she did get any sleep, she didn't know, and it would have been very little if she did.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2: Departure Day_**

Kim was wide awake when her alarm went off at 7:00am, but she was far from ready to leave. She did get out of bed though. Slowly, but she still did. The whole rest of the summer would go as slow as she got out of bed as far as she knew it.

After she finished breakfast, she walked outside and sat on the curb, waiting anxiously for Ron, while her parents got everything in the car and Jim and Tim tried to finish their latest project before they left.

Finally, she spotted him. As she got up, she tripped over herself. If it wasn't for the person that grabbed her arm, she would have fell head first on the concrete.

"Thanks." She said looking up to see that it was Ron who had helped her.

He let out a little laugh. "You can save the world but you can't save yourself from falling to the ground on your face?"

Kim turned red from embarrassment. They stood there for a moment, staring at the ground before Kim spoke up.

"I'm going to miss you. It won't be the same as last time we went."

No matter how many times she said that in the past week, he never got annoyed with it because he knew it was true and he kind of felt the same way too.

"It's time to go." Kim's mom said gently, touching Kim's shoulder.

"Ok, I'll be there in a minute." She replied unhappily. She turned her attention back to Ron. "I guess this is good-bye."

"I guess so…" he replied before Kim kissed him.

"Eww, gross!"

"Tweebs!" Kim yelled at her brothers angrily. When they saw she was mad, they piled into the car laughing because they got what they wanted out of her.

She turned back to Ron when she was sure that they were in the car. She slapped him on the cheek for laughing at her getting mad. That made him quiet.

"Oww, what was that for?"

"You were laughing at me. And besides, I have to go."

"Oh, yea. Well, bye."

"Bye." Kim said walking away towards the car.

Ron stayed standing there from the moment the door closed until he could no longer see the car anymore. He then slowly walked home.

Meanwhile, Kim stared out the window, a blank expression on her face. She ignored her brothers' antics and blocked out any other sound in the car from her mind. The whole way to the airport she was silent, although part of her did want someone to talk to her.

Her parents wanted to check on her but they knew it would be pointless. One, they already knew what was wrong, and two, if she was able to ignore her brothers, they knew she could ignore them just as easily.

As Ron walked home and Kim stared out the window, both car and plane, both were thinking the same thing, that leaving each other was much harder than they thought. If leaving was so hard, how much worse would the summer be? They didn't know it yet, but things were only going to get worse in the way that they didn't want it to.


	3. Chapter 3

_**Chapter 3 **_

_**I Can't Do This**_

_Two months, threes weeks, and four days to go. I can do this, I can do this, __and I can do this._

_I can't do this!_

Only three days and five and a half hours and Kim couldn't stand being away from home (to put it in general terms). She had hardly gotten any sleep, been very taciturn, and would barely even pick at her food, only eating enough to get by. She tried hard to enjoy herself, for everyone else's benefit, but it was to no avail. Everyone including herself knew she was miserable, and all she was doing was trying to deny it.

Kim was with her family at a place called Lily's Café for lunch when her Kimmunicator went off. Excusing herself from the table, she went outside and turned it on. She had brightened up a little, hoping it would be Ron finally calling her. She was wrong.

"What's the sitch, Wade?" she tried to say as enthusiastically as usual.

"You miss him don't you?"

"It's that obvious?"

"Uh...yea. Anyway, I have something that just came in. Drakken has apparently escaped prison and was found stealing some mind control chips. There was also something about a thousand or so Canadians being kidnapped just last week."

"Trying to take over Canada _again_?"

"Mmm hmm."

"Any idea where he's located?"

"Umm…" he started typing extremely fast. "Yea, he's at his old lair in the Carribean." Wade looked back up at Kim. "You're going have to go at this one alone. For some reason I wasn't able to get a hold of Ron. Think you can handle this?"

Something in the back of her mind kept telling her that she couldn't, especially in the condition she was in. But she was needed, so she would have to put her personal feelings aside.

"I'll go. You got a ride for us… I mean, for me?"

"Already ahead of you. Should be there in ten minutes."

"Thanks. And before you go… never mind."

"Sure?"

"Yea, I'm sure." She answered while nodding her head.

"Ok, I'm out."

The screen winked off and Kim shoved her Kimmunicator back in her pocket. Before going back to the hotel so she could change into her mission gear (she had brought them just incase something came up), she went inside to tell her parents about the sitch. After that, she ran all the way back to her hotel room, the adrenaline that she had lost Monday morning rushing back through her body. Before she knew it, she was putting a key card into the door to her room and going through her bag for clothes (she never bothered taking her things out yet).

Inside of five minutes she was outside of the rotating glass doors and climbing aboard a compact jet waiting for her outside in a deserted area of the parking lot. It had a computerized control system so she had to do nothing but sit back and do whatever.

Some ten minutes later, after the jet took off, Kim pulled out her Kimmunicator and turned it on. Instead of Wade coming up on the screen though, the regular format of a cell phone appeared showing her initials in yellow and green in a half circle and a black background.

After opening her phone book, she went down the list until she came across Ron's number. She selected it, even though she knew he wouldn't answer. For some reason, just leaving a message was better than not calling at all.

About a minute later, after listening to the ringing and the recorded message, she let out what she wanted to say.

Drakken nodded approvingly as the news report ended.

_As of last night, fourty and possibly more citizens have been kidnapped from there homes. Once again, the identity of the kidnapper is unknown. Please report any sightings of the following people…_

Everything was going just as planned. By next week his thousand plus prisoners would raid the Canadian army. Then, with nobody to protect the queen, she would be forced to step down from the throne and hand it over to him. From there, he would take over the world, and nobody could stop him (at least that's what he thought).

"Just imagine Shego! Soon I will be ruling Canada and then the world. Isn't this the greatest plan ever?"

"Mmm hmm. Sounds about as good as your little Diablo thing, and look what happened to that and where we ended up." She answered while filling her nails, which she always did when Drakken went on ranting about a plan that was doomed to fail.

He growled in return to her remark. "Don't remind me about that. I wasn't expecting that to fail…"

"You aren't expecting this to fail either." Shego interrupted.

"But now there is no way that Kim Possible can stop me and my army. They are under my control as long as the little complaisance chip is still activated, and only I know what the password is to deactivate them! Ha ha ha!"

"Is the password 'my perfect plan'?" she said as he did a sort of happy dance. That, as you may assume, ended very quickly.

"Aw, Shego, must you always ruin these moments for me?" he whined.

"That's part of my job. I do everything else to keep me busy." She said, picking up the latest villains magazine and opening it up.

"Yea, and you're other job is telling me exactly what I wanted to know." Came a voice from somewhere above them. No matter, they already knew who it was.

"Kim Possible! What are you doing here?" Drakken yelled out to the ceiling. "Where are you?"

"First of all, it's my job to ruin your take over the world plans, and second, where I'm at is for me to know and you to find out."

The flight didn't take very long. Maybe an hour and a half, if that. She was in Florida and only going a few hundred miles south in a jet going a little over the speed of sound.

Finding the lair didn't take that long either. As usual, it was huge and it took up a whole island, although it was much different than his original one. Getting inside was also a piece of cake. All she had to do after jumping off of the jet was make sure she landed on the glass roof without making a sound and then cutting out a piece of it so she could get inside (also without making any noise). Instead though, she didn't even need to do that. Some hundred feet away, there was an open hatch with a ladder leading inside. She guessed that was the fire escape.

It was pretty dark inside, despite it being the middle of the afternoon. Just barely though, she could make out the shapes of people. All of them were supposedly sleeping. If not, she couldn't tell and nobody was saying anything.

Before going any further, she took out a small flashlight and checked her surroundings. She was in a large room, probably that would take up the space of two large single story houses. That didn't get her attention though. She was standing in the middle of a crowd of hundreds of people, all of them wearing some sort of long sleeve top and pants.

_Who would wear that in summer?_

Then it donned on her. They were forced to come here in the middle of the tropics wearing winter clothing. These were the missing people from Canada! The shaft must have been open to let in fresh air so these people wouldn't suffocate.

Instantly her hand went down to her pocket and pulled out her Kimmunicator. Even though it was dark she was able to find the main button that turned it on.

"Oh, hey Kim, what's up?"

"Wade, do you remember that report about the missing Canadians?"

"Yea, how could I not. It's all over the news right now. Anyway, what about it?

"I think I found them. It seems to me that Drakken's been holding them hostage or something. Could this have anything to do with…" she started saying before the words were taken right out of her mouth.

"… his plot to take over Canada. I'll look into it. How many people are there?"

"I don't know, but I'd have to say at least five hundred."

"Ok, I'll get back to you when I know more."

The connection broke and the screen went dark, leaving her in a completely dark room. She shoved the communications device back in her pocket and took back out her flashlight so she could find the door. Carefully she made her way over to it, trying not to step on anybodies hands. Since she was inside of the room, she didn't have to use anything to unlock the door. All it took was turning the knob and it clicked open. Quietly she stepped out into the hallway, making sure nobody was watching the door. Thankfully, nobody was there.

She tip-toed down the corridor, being as silent as possible, until she reached an air vent in the floor. Knowing that it was the one that led to the "main room" of the building where Drakken and Shego always were. It wasn't exactly how she wanted to make her appearance direct approach this time, but it worked.

She cut through the metal covering with her laser and jumped inside, not caring how much noise was made. It didn't really matter anymore anyway.

"Oh, so that's how you want to be? Go sneaking around in _my_ lair and have fun watching us find you? Well, you are sadly mistaken." Drakken yelled out at the ceiling, while walking over to his control center. He let his hand hover over a red button. "My new friends will take care of that for me!"

His hand pressed down on the button and a door off to the corner of the room swished open, revealing some fifty people or so, all looking directly at him, waiting for their order. "Go find Kim Possible!" he demanded, pointing upward.

Almost immediately they separated, some staying on the ground and the majority climbing boxes and crates in an effort to find the one they were commanded to.

While they searched, Drakken started typing in something. As soon as he turned around to check on progress he heard a thump behind him, like the sound of someone landing on the floor.

"Looks to me like your 'friends' don't even know who they're looking for." Kim said as Drakken turned around to face her. "Speaking of them, what exactly do you want with these people? You have an awful lot of them in storage upstairs. Could it be that they have something to do with your plan to take over Canada?" she asked with a fake confused look.

Before he could give any answer Shego ran into Kim's side, knocking her off her feet and sliding halfway across the room. "Those people may not know what they're lookin' for but I do." Shego remarked as she activated her powers. "And it looks like I found it!" she started charging towards her opponent.

Right at the last possible moment, Kim kicked against a nearby crate and pushed herself up into the air, going right over Shego. She landed just as her glowing fist smashed through the crate.

She pulled it out and turned around glaring at Kim. Then a grin crept across her face. "So, where's your little sidekick at, Kimmie?" Shego asked, once again running towards Kim.

She stood her ground waiting for Shego to make her first swipe at her. As soon as Shego's hand was raised, she did a backflip, landing on her hands then pushing out with her legs, kicking Shego right below her knees. "Couldn't get a hold of him for some reason. Why do you care?" she asked, ducking sideways to miss the green flame that was aimed right towards her.

"Don't know, just noticed something was missing." She hurled flame after flame of green plasma towards Kim, who kept dodging them. Finding that she was waisting her time, she stopped. Her grin grew a little wider and she said with mock sympathy, "You know, it's too bad he couldn't be here. You'll really need the help." With that she shot two flames right past Kim, hitting the bottom of a tower of boxes.

"Huh?" was all Kim could get out before the highest box started wobbling ferociously. She started to run but crashed to the ground when the box fell and knocked her over, landing on her leg. She was only able to let out a scream in agony before passing out, the sudden rush of pain being too much to handle all at once. The last thing she saw was a green blur crash into the heavy box and burn up into nothing but ashes.

Kim woke up to bright fluorescent lights shining in her eyes, nearly blinding her. After blinking a few times, she looked around to see where she was. In moments she was caught up in a crushing hug.

"Honey, I'm so happy you're okay!" exclaimed her mother, still holding onto her daughter. "What happened?"

Before answering (not that she could right now anyway… the events were still a little sketchy), Kim took a moment to look around the room. She was in a hospital room, that much was obvious. To her left, sitting beside her on the bed was her mom, and on the other side standing beside the bed was her dad. Over in the corner of the room were her brothers watching the TV mounted up on the wall.

What had happened? She had been fighting with Shego until a tower of boxes started falling and then there was pain. Where did it come from? She had been running to get out of the way, but one of the boxes landed on her leg…

Warily, she looked down, scared of what she might see (or not see). She sighed in relief when all that was there was a white cast wrapped around half of her leg and her whole foot. Thankfully it had only been broken.

"Don't worry, it's just broken." Her mother reassured her. "Only thing is that you have to stay off your feet for a week or so and then you'll have to use crutches for a couple of more weeks."

The rest of the night was spent just talking and trying to explain what had happened. Kim was only half paying attention most of the time though, her mind on other things.

_What was I thinking going alone? O should have known something like this would happen. Now Drakken got away and now that I'm out of the picture, there is nothing stopping him from whatever it is he's planning. None of this would have happened if I didn't have to go on this trip!_

A stray thought slipped into her mind, She had no idea where she had heard it before but it sounded so familiar to her. That one phrase occupied her mind for the rest of the night.

_Ron, I couldn't save the world without you._


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4 **

**Lying to Avoid **

It's interesting how you can get used to things being one way so quickly. Only a couple of weeks, or maybe not even that and it becomes a habit or routine. What do you get though when that routine has to be set aside for a while? You get boredom, and depending on the situation, that can change your lifestyle completely or not at all.

In this case, you could be so bored that you don't want to do anything about it.

Nothing was the same, and nothing had been for a little over a month. Kim had only been gone for a week and Ron had nothing to do but sit around watching television, which after a while was pretty boring itself.

Finding out last Tuesday evening that he had missed out on a mission (but mostly see Kim) just added on unwanted frustration. All because he left his phone in his room while going out to find something better to do. This turned out pointless unless you consider walking around town aimlessly beneficial.

It might have helped if one of there close friend were available. Felix was gone on vacation with his mom and Monique was working full time at Club Banana now that it was summer. He didn't feel like going to the mall all that much anyway, and besides, it just didn't seem right going to see her by himself.

That left pretty much nothing left to do. It was still morning so nothing good was going to be on. Getting on the computer was an idea, but it just didn't seem appealing at the moment, not that anything did. He couldn't even find enough energy to get something out of the kitchen to eat, no matter how hungry he was.

Along with the other mission call he had gotten last week he had also received a call from Kim, he assumed before the she arrived at Drakken's lair. She had told him he could call her whenever, but he didn't think that would be a good thing to do. She was down in Florida to visit with her nana, and if they were in the middle of a conversation or something, he didn't want to interrupt.

Ron was about to doze off on the couch when he heard ringing coming from somewhere upstairs. At first he thought that someone had taken the downstairs phone upstairs but was corrected when he saw that that phone was still sitting there. It took a moment for it to click in his head that it wasn't the house phone, but his phone. He ran up the stairs and stormed into his room, just barely getting to the phone before it went to voice mail.

_I really gotta change the ring tone so I don't confuse it with the house phone, _he thought as the person on the other end said hello.

"Huh, oh hi… uh?" he took the phone away from him and looked at the screen to see who it was. Wanting to smack himself in the face for not knowing who it was he quickly brought the phone back to him and said, "Kim! Hi, what are you doing calling this early in the day? Isn't it like nine over there?"

"It's ten thirty." She corrected. "And I just happened to have a little free time. So what was that all about?"

"What?" he said lying back on his bed, staring at the wall.

"The not knowing who you were talking to what. Kind of got a little worried there. Thought you forgot me already."

"Oh, that what. I was in a little bit of a hurry getting to the phone. Little confusion with which phone was ringing."

"Mm hmm, so when are you going to remember to change your ring tone?" she teased. "Hey, I'm using the Kimmunicator, so if you want, you can get on your computer and we can actually talk face to face."

Without wasting a second Ron jumped off of the bed and ran over to the computer, turning it on since it hadn't been used at all in the past week. "Sorry it's talking so long. This computer is slow."

"That's okay. Anyway, what have you been up to lately?"

He switched the phone to the other side and held it up with his shoulder while logging in. "Not too much. Feeling a little bad about missing the mission last week though. Sorry about that by the way."

There was a little moment of silence before a reply, which was interrupted by the call transferring to the computer. A minute later he could see Kim on his screen, but he wasn't expecting to see her upset. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hmm? Oh nothing. I was just thinking. About missing the mission last week… it was no big… really. It's okay." She said trying to sound reassuring, her frown instantly turning into a smile.

Ron hadn't been paying attention to her uneasiness but rather just staring at her. Wade had made the system they were using so that it would seem that the other person you were talking to was actually standing right there in front of you. For a little while he forgot that he was actually staring at a computer screen and reached out to touch her cheek.

"Uh, Ron, what are you doing?" Kim asked looking a little confused.

He shook his head and brought his hand back, hiding it under the desk. "Oh, heh, just kind of drifted off there. Umm, so what are you doing today?"

She laughed to herself, just realizing what it was he was trying to do and also feeling a little bad. Partly because she knew that if her screen had been a little bigger she might have done the same thing, but also because of what the act showed. Pushing that thought aside she went on. "Not too much. Just gonna hang around." Quietly to herself she added,_ not that I can do much. _"You?"

"Pretty much what I've been doing the past week. Watching TV, going out, same old, same old." He looked down away from the screen. In reality, he had been doing nothing at all, and he didn't want to lie to her. He also didn't want her to come home for his sake. All it would take was a little push and she would be there in an instant.

They stayed on the phone talking for a couple more hours until Kim had to go. Actually, as time passed, more time was spent looking at each other than talking, neither one wanting to slip and tell the truth about how they really felt.

"Told you this wouldn't work out Dr.D." Shego said as she flipped through the latest fashion magazine available at the motel they had been staying at.

After the encounter with Kim a couple of days ago, they went and sought a remote island a little north of Venezuela. Since the wrong people knew about what they were up to, they decided to lay low for a while, using Shego's credit cards for necessities.

"It's not over yet, Shego. You left Kimberly maimed and now we have more time on our hands."

"What about all the people you had to leave behind, hmm? By now they've probably been found by the authorities."

"They can't control them." He said like, making it seem like everyone in the world knew that but her. "It would take a computer genius to hack into my files…" he said until he realized just what he was saying.

"Mmm hmm. One thing that Kimmie isn't short on. All it would take is one person to figure this all out and your plan goes down the drain just like all your other ones." For emphasis she lifted up a hand and with one finger pointing downward, twirled it while making a flushing sound.

"Grr…" Drankken growled shaking his fist while pacing from one end of the room to the other.

"If you think about it, going through with this is pretty pointless, unless," she laughed to herself, covering her mouth with her hand. "You got this crazy idea in your head that we could face a whole country by ourselves. I'm mean, come on, that's just stupid."

Drakken stopped and looked at Shego with a grin on his face that meant he had an idea on his mind. "Shego, that's it!"

"Say wha? I wasn't being serious you know." She said after dropping the magazine to her lap.

"Of course we can't do it alone, but I never said we would be alone." He rubbed his hands together like he was excited about something.

_Uh-oh, this can't be good. _Shego thought as she watched Drakken sit down at the cheap desk and start righting out his plans.

Kim had a hard time signing off when her mom came to get her for lunch. It hadn't quite been a week yet but the doctor had said she could walk around, of course with the assistance of crutches. In about two weeks, she would have to go for a check-up and possibly get a new cast, maybe one of those bulky, black boots. It hadn't' been broken more than it had been crushed, but it still did some damage. Fortunately, she wouldn't be stuck in a cast for as long as she thought.

It was probably a good thing that her mother had interrupted them. Any longer and she may have let out the truth. Right now, Ron thought she was perfectly fine, that nothing had happened to her. For some reason, she couldn't bring herself to tell him what really happened. She also didn't want him to come down there just because of an injury.

Just being able to talk to Ron made Kim feel a little better, but afterwards, she felt worse than she had before. She felt guilty because she had lied to someone she cared about more than anything. Now she would have to carry that around with her until she could solve the problem.

Lunch seemed to take forever, especially since she hadn't gotten anything. Kim knew she was worrying her parents to some extent, but didn't really care.

There was also the problem about what had happened to Drakken and Shego. Wade had already told her that the missing people were being held in a special facility until they could figure out a way to deactivate the complaisance chips, which as of last night, had been figured out. Probably about right now all those people were heading back to their homes in Canada. The bad news was that after that evening, the pair had practically disappeared.

Kim knew that now that everyone was back, safely in there homes, Drakken's plot was flushed down the toilet, so she tried not to worry about it too much. But she knew better than to do that, because if he really wanted something, he would set his mind to it and let nothing get in his way.

At least she didn't have to worry about lying about that half of the aftermath of the mission. Kim had pretty much just come out and told Ron whenever he asked about it. But what she was hiding what was probably more important to him than anything, and only for one reason: it was about her.

She spent the whole evening crying, until finally, she fell asleep. If anybody had heard her, they didn't do anything but leave her alone.


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5 **

Kim was anxious to find out the results. For the past half hour she had been sitting in the small room, just a bit larger than a walk-in-closet. It had cream colored walls and smelled of rubbing alcohol (which she couldn't stand). For some time now she had been flipping through an out-dated fashion magazine, every once in a while looking out the door to see if anyone was coming.

_Why does it take so long to get an x-ray processed? They said they would get back to me as soon as they were done!_

For the past hour and a half she had been sitting in a doctors' office. Most of the time was spent in the waiting room, at least forty-five minutes. Then it was off to the room where the picture would be taken, which took less than fifteen minutes. Sine then, she had been sitting in one of the many examination rooms.

She was about to try and get somebody's attention and find out what was going on when the doctor came into the room, holding a laptop and a folder with two transparencies sticking out of them. He had short dark brown hair, bright blue eyes and looked about six feet tall. At first glance he looked like he was in his late thirties to early forties.

He sat down on a stool and placed his things down, placing the laptop in front of him and opening it up. After typing in something quickly he turned to her. "Hello Miss Possible, I'm Dr. Johnson." He said shaking her hand. "Sorry about the long wait, had to take care of some patients that came in last minute."

"It's no big. Not planning to do anything later anyway except spend some time with the fam. It's just that I can't stand to smell of the alcohol." At the mention of it she scrunched up her face.

He chuckled slightly. "Then let's get on with this so you can get out of here. I understand that it's not the most entertaining place to be." After typing in a few more things to open up a window. "Says here that a box had tripped you over and in the process, crushing your right leg and twisting your right ankle. Is that correct?"

"As far as I know."

"Ok then, let's take a look, shall we?" He stood up, grabbing the yellow folder with the transparencies and walked over to the projector hanging on the wall, turning it on and hanging up the pictures.

While he went to take care of that and turn off the light Kim grabbed her crutches and struggled to get up. Before the x-ray had been taken they had to take off the cast. Getting up was fine, but it was trying not to step down with her right foot that was challenging. It wanted to step down like it normally would whenever somebody stood up, but she forced herself not to give in to it. Slowly, she made her way over to where the doctor was now standing.

_I hate these crutches! I want to walk!_

"So, Dr.Johnson… will I be able to walk unassisted anytime soon?" Kim asked once she had made her way beside him, looking at the two pictures of her leg. Both looked completely different, one being from when she was first brought into the hospital, and the other being taken not even an our ago.

"Actually yes. Compared to the first one, it has healed significantly. After only three weeks each of the cracks have shortened by an average of half an inch. It's perfectly normal for that to happen though when you take care of yourself though."

"I do what I can. So will I be able to ditch the crutches?" Her hand went to her mouth as soon as she realized what she had just said.

He let out a playful laugh and went on. "Yea, you won't need them anymore. If your ankle was still twisted, you probably would have had to keep them a while longer, but it's not. You will have to use a boot though. You'll be able to walk on your own in it, but its padding lessens the pressure whenever you step down." He went over to turn the light for the room back on and then turn off the projector. After taking down the photos and putting them back in the folder, he started to head out the door. Before he completely disappeared though, he turned back to her. "I'll be back in a few minutes. I just need to go and get it for you and then you can be on your way." Then without another word he was gone.

If she could, Kim would have been jumping up and down. She absolutely despised those crutches. She had already lost count of how many times she had lost her balance with them. She only remembered that it hurt. They were also rubbing against her arms, which after a while started to burn. All she managed to do at the thought of getting rid of the things was smile.

True to his word, Dr. Johnson was back in five minutes. He stayed and showed her how to take it off and put it on, how to adjust it, and help her put it on. Before leaving, he scheduled another appointment for three weeks later, and sent her on her way.

Kim almost decided to just walk back to the hotel, which was just over a mile away, but she had already told her mom she would call when she was done and besides, if she didn't want to be lectured on how she shouldn't have walked that far with an injury because that could just make it worse. It didn't matter if the doctor said it was okay. If mom said no, that was the end of it. Reluctantly, Kim took out her cell phone and called. Less than ten minutes and her mother was there to pick her up.

"So, how did it go?" her mom asked as soon as the car door closed. "I assume it went well."

"Yea, he said it healed enough that I could walk on it with this thing." Kim lifted up her foot to show what she was talking about.

"I bet you were happy about that. I still don't want you on it _too_ much though."

"But mom…" Kim whined looking over at her mom.

She glanced over at her daughter, giving her a look that showed there would be no buts about it. In response, Kim groaned and looked out the passenger window, her head leaning against the palm of her hand. Satisfied, she turned her attention back to the road.

Silence filled the small area until they got back to the hotel, and even then, Kim just went up to her room without speaking a word.

_**Later in Kim's Room**_

Kim was sitting on her bed leaning against the wall. She had just hung up the phone after calling to have dinner brought up to her room. That night she didn't really feel up to going out, instead just wanting to be alone.

She was still upset about earlier in the car. It wasn't so much at her mom though as it was herself. If it weren't for her restrictions the past three weeks, Kim may have still been stuck with those stupid crutches. Then again, if she hadn't agreed to going on that mission alone, she wouldn't even be in this mess.

Sighing, Kim looked over to the nightstand, where her Kimmunicator was sitting. It had been just over two weeks since she had picked it up. There was still one person she hadn't told about what had happened. Hesitantly, she picked the device up off the table and held it in her hands, letting her thumb hover over the on button. All she did was stare at the button that her finger was hovering over, until she heard a knock at the door.

"Who is it?" she asked, never taking her eyes off the button she was hesitating to push.

"It's mom. Can I come in?"

"The doors open." Kim answered setting the Kimmunicator down in her lap, but still not letting go.

Once her mom was inside she gently closed the door behind her and sat down on the edge of the bed across from Kim. There was a moment of silence before one of the spoke.

"I'm sorry." They both said simultaneously.

"You go first." Kim said looking up at her mom.

"I haven't trusted you as much as I should have these past couple weeks. I know you've been hurt before on missions, but this is the first time that it could have actually been worse than how it turned out. It could have disabled you for the rest of your life if Shego didn't burn up the crate when she did. It could have damaged your leg beyond repair. What I'm trying to say is, I didn't want to see you get hurt again and I became a little overprotective, and I'm sorry I did."

"Don't be sorry. It was probably because of you that I'm now wearing this thing. I should be the one that sorry. I should have known that you knew what was best for me. This is all my fault anyway." Kim said looking down at her lap.

Her mom moved over to the side of the bed, sitting down on the edge of the bed. She rested her hand on her daughters arm, causing her to look up. "Don't blame yourself, honey. You didn't know what was going to happen. Nobody did."

"I know that, but I should have known I couldn't do it alone." She said, growing quieter and turning away.

Understanding that this was something Kim needed to take care of herself, at least for now, Ms. Possible stood up and headed towards the door. Before leaving, she asked, "Do you want us to pick you something up to eat on our way back?"

"No thank you. I already ordered something before you came." Thanks though."

With that she left the room.

A few minutes later another knock came to the door, but Kim knew that this time it was her food. As quickly as she could she went over to the door, grabbing the money she set aside on the dresser on her way there. After handing the man her money, she took the tray and went over and sat back down on the bed.

When she was finished she set the tray aside and picked up her Kimmunicator once again. Her thumb hovered over the button for some time. Pulling herself together, she pushed the button. Before she was even able to push down, the device started doing something that nearly made her fall off the edge of the bed…

It started ringing!

**AN: **I'd like to thank everyone for their reviews! It really encouraged me to keep going with this story. THANK YOU!

Although I've have progressed with this story, things may be slowing down because I'm starting school on Monday. Once again, thank you!


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6**

**A Plan is Revealed**

This did not happen very often, if ever. Of course, she would be sarcastic about it at times, but this time it was real. Very real, and she could hardly handle it.

Drakken was scaring Shego.

For the past few weeks Drakken had been doing nothing but working on his new plan. He'd stay up almost all night sitting at a desk writing and drawing it out, erasing (a lot. All the eraser that found its way to the floor could probably make up two new big erasers) and laughing (oh so much laughing!), most of the time keeping her up all night too. What was worse was that he wouldn't let her see anything of it.

Finally about a week ago they were able to go back to the lair. People had stopped investigating days ago, so it was safe now. Only thing was now he locked himself in his room. Once in a while she would lean up against the door, trying to make out what he was saying to himself, but nothing made sense because it was just a bunch of mumbling. The only sound she could make out was laughing, and that didn't give her anything to work with except he liked the results of his plan.

She was surprised at herself that she hadn't already blown the door down with her powers. It was almost as if he respected his privacy and trusted him. That was definitely scaring her.

Shego was out sitting in the main room, sitting in her chair legs crossed and propped up on the table. In her hands was the latest _Villains' _magazine. She was about halfway through it, examining an outfit made by some lady in New York. It was a green turtleneck top with short sleeves and pure black flare pants. They looked oddly just like the ones from that dream she had about a month ago.

_Hmm, maybe I'll have to pay a visit to New York again._

She had just started to write down the phone number and address for the person when what she had thought to be inevitable for the past few weeks. Drakken had come out of his room…

…holding his new plan in his hands.

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Drakken sat at his desk, for one final time carefully looking over his plan. Under his eyes were heavy bags, from lack of sleep. If you were to hear him talk, it would be scratchy, from only using it to whisper or giggle to himself, and not using yelling at something or other. He was also very hungry, his masterpiece keeping him from doing anything else, including taking a shower.

To put it simply, he was not looking good… or smelling good for that matter.

For about three weeks now, nearly nonstop, Drakken had been working on a new plan to take over Canada, thanks to Shego who had given him the idea in the first place (he considered thanking her but then that would take away some of the glory and pride for him). This time he was very careful not to make any mistake at all, although there were still some flaws he couldn't help.

This plan was actually quite similar to one he had come by about three years ago when he decided to make clones of Kim hoping that they could defeat her for him. This though was a little different.

He finished checking over his plan and rolled up the blueprint and stood up, heading for the door with his plan. He already had everything he needed. The only thing left to do was reveal his plan to Shego so it could be fulfilled!

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"So let me get this straight." Shego said after actually listening to Drakken. "You want me to lead an army of clones that are exactly like me into the Canadian army?"

"Precisely."

"And how do you plan on making these clones?" she asked almost suspiciously.

"By scanning you, just like this." He took out a cell phone shaped device with an antenna sticking out the end of it with a dish shaped thing wrapping around it, making it look a lot like a satellite dish. He pressed a button and a wide, red beam shot out of it, slowly going up and down her body. Then it winked off.

"There. Now I have your complete DNA copied onto this device and I can make as many copies of you as I like." To emphasize his point he pointed the device to the side of Shego and pressed another button, once again a red beam shooting out of it and going up and down until a whole new being was formed.

Shego looked at it in shock and disbelief. She walked in circles around it, examining it from head to toe. It did nothing but stand there, scowling much like she always did. It even had her mint-green skin. "How similar are these clones going to be to me?"

"Somewhere around 95 to 100 percent. You see, whenever you get knocked unconscious, the clones do too. The only difference is, you'll wake up again, and the clones won't. Besides that, all your thoughts, techniques, and physical features are also in them."

"Including the glow power?"

"Yes."

Shego thought to herself for a few moments. His plan did seem to make sense, and with Kimmie out of the picture it may actually work. Not even she could think of a way this could backfire. For once Drakken had finally done it.

"Ok, I'm in."

He nodded approvingly. "Good. We will make our move by tomorrow evening." He started heading towards the door that he had walked through about half an hour ago.

Shego looked at him surprised. "What, why not now? What's happened to you these past few days? It's like you're a whole new person."

"Because," he said turning around so he could face her. "I'm hungry, tired, and I smell really bad. I thought even you would notice that."

Now that Shego thought about it, he was right. She must have not been thinking about it or something because she could definitely smell it now. Enough to make her face scrunch up in disgust. "Ugh, just go, please, go, and don't come back until you've washed yourself at least seven times."

"Shego, I was just joking about that last pa…"

He saw her hands start glowing and her glaring at him. "I SAID GO!"

He was in the bathroom inside of twenty seconds.

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The young computer genius sat back in his chair contended. For about two and a half

weeks now he had been keeping track of Drakken and Shego. While they hadn't been occupying the lair, he had some people install some things throughout it that would keep track of them once they did return. One of those things was an ultra sensitive sound detector, one of which he got the most use out of. The other was a color security camera, able to record everything they were doing.

Before that though, he had some people at the hotel the duo were staying at slip a small, indestructible, rice sized chip slipped into drinks that were ordered by them. He was only able to track them this time because of extensive credit use in that area with Shego's name attached to it. Now though, he would be able to track them down where ever they went, and they wouldn't even know.

Wade knew everything now. It took about a week to get to that point, but the reward in the end was satisfying. Tomorrow night, Drakken and Shego along with their army of Shego clones would be invading the Canadian army, taking them off guard. At least, that was what _they_ thought.

The army was warned and ready, and he was ready for his plan to proceed. A plan that would most defininately catch Drakken and Shego off guard.

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**AN: **well, here's chapter six. Sorry it's short, but there wasn't so much to say in this chapter except for what I did. Hope you like it though, and I appreciate the reviews!

Any ideas on what Wade's plan is?


	7. Chapter 7

"**Chapter 7: Ready to Go?**

There was nothing to do. Well, actually there was, but nothing seemed appealing to him at the time, if anything had at all the last six weeks. To rephrase it, there was nothing he wanted to do.

A five foot six inch young man with chocolate brown eyes and an unruly mop of blonde hair was laying on his bed starring at the ceiling, just barely paying any attention to the radio built into his alarm clock. It was starting to near eleven o'clock in the morning, so he knew he would have to get up eventually. Of course, he had been telling himself that for the past two hours but never did anything about it, and it seemed he wasn't about to anytime soon either.

Ron never really listened to the radio much. Besides the seemingly endless commercials played, he didn't mind it. It was just that he never really had the time to listen to it. For perhaps the third time that morning, they played one song in particular again, and random thoughts crossed his mind as he listened to it.

You stand in the line just to hit a new low  
You're faking a smile with the coffee to go

_Bleh! I hate coffee!_

You tell me your life's been way off line  
You're falling to pieces every time

_Sure seems that way… when's the last time I left this house?_

And I don't need no carryin' on

_I think it was the morning Kim left… yea, that's it._

Cause you had a bad day  
You're taking one down

_Oh yea, __**way**__ down._

You sing a sad song just to turn it around

_I can't sing, at least not slow songs. Don't wanna try either._

You say you don't know  
You tell me don't lie  
You work at a smile and you go for a ride

_Yea, I've been smiling a lot lately… _he thought sarcastically.

He went on like this until the end of the song. Once it was over he finally decided he should get up. Just as his feet hit the floor he heard a voice. One that he was not expecting nor had heard in a while. Confused, he looked around trying to figure out where it was coming from. Then it came again, only this time giving direction.

"I'm on the computer, Ron." Wade said plainly.

Ron turned toward the monitor sitting on his desk. "Oh, heh… forgot I had that on." He said nervously, walking over to the desk and sitting down in the chair.

"Mmm hmm. Anyway, you busy right now?"

"Depends on what you want me to do. And if it's what I think it is, shouldn't you be giving this to Kim instead?"

"Well, yes, I did tell her, but…" Wade bit his lower lip, trying to figure out what to say. "She's a bit tied up right now with other things at the moment. I was wondering if you could take one alone… at least for a little bit."

"Wait, what you're saying is that you did tell Kim about this, but she's busy right now so you came to me asking if I would go when I don't even know what it is you want me to go to." Ron asked trying to understand what exactly was going on.

"Yes, and I was about to tell you what this is about before you brought this up. As I was getting at, Drakken is making a move on the Canadian army in a couple of hours and I was hoping you could stall them… until Kim gets there." Wade said uncomfortably, although it went unnoticed by Ron.

"So Kim will be there?"

"Yes, she will."

Ron was already halfway across his room, looking through his closet and dressers.

"I'll have a ride there to pick you up in thirty minutes." Wade said, although probably for nothing. Shaking his head, he turned off the connection.

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Had he just lied?

He had said that she was busy and he had told her about the mission. That was some of the truth, right? All he had said was that she would be there when he really didn't know that for sure. That wasn't lying, it… it was…

Who was he kidding? He had lied. Why did he?

"_So will you go?" Wade asked hopefully._

_Kim sighed. "I don't know, Wade… let me think about it and I'll let you know tomorrow."_

"_Gotcha. Call you back tomorrow then."_

That was where his plan started to go downhill. He had been expecting Kim to agree to go, no doubt about it. Then he would contact Ron and tell him about it and have them meet there. Only he had seen how miserable they were without each other and almost couldn't stand it as much as they couldn't. In his head, it seemed like it would work out perfectly…

But she had said _"I don't know…"_

As he was talking to Ron, Wade could tell that he wouldn't be going anywhere unless he knew Kim would be there. Sure, he had gone on missions without her before, but that was because he was doing it for her. If he had known that Kim had been injured on the last mission a couple of weeks ago, Ron probably would have been more than willing to take it on his own because he was doing it for her. It wasn't that he would just go on the missions for that reason, but right now he lacked the will to do anything. Almost as if without Kim, he had no reason for being. If she wasn't going to be there, and he had no reason for going, everything he had been working toward would be for naught.

_So that's why I lied._

Well, he'd have to make sure now that Kim went, no matter what it took. Taking a deep breath, Wade pressed the key that would connect with the Kimmunicator.

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_What am I going to do?_

The night before Wade had called her asking if she would go on a mission. He had said that Drakken was making another attempt to take over Canada with the assistance of Shego clones (why in the world would Shego agree to have herself cloned?) and that he would be making his move the next evening, now today. At first she wanted to say yes, but since she had a little time asked if she could give an answer tomorrow morning.

Now was tomorrow morning. He would be calling back soon.

Kim sat at the desk in her room leaning on her arm that was resting on the table. With her other hand she drummed her fingers against the surface of the desk, ready to pick up the blue communications device sitting nearby when it rang.

It would be nice to get a little payback on Shego for what she did to her. But like her mom had said the night before, how things turned out could have been worse if it weren't for her too. Then too, she wasn't much for going out and getting revenge. She would leave that to someone else. Besides, what would she be able to do? Of course, neither of the evil duo would be expecting her to show up, and from what Wade had told her about the clones, if she were careful, all it would take was a blow to the real Shego and they'd all go down, once again foiling Drakken's plan. But how would she know which was the real one?

_Could I really do this alone again? Didn't I learn anything from what happened the last time I went alone?_

Kim continued drumming her fingers, lost in thought the little device started ringing. Still, she took her time accepting the call.

"Hey, Kim. So, have you made up your mind yet?" Wade asked trying to force a smile onto his face.

She sighed deeply. "I think I'm going to pass on this one." She paused, noticing his frown. "It's not like it's necessary for me to go. You told me yourself that you had warned the army that they were coming. I'm sure they can handle them on there own."

It was Wade's turn to sigh, but for a different reason. "You have to go."

Kim looked at him almost taken aback. "No I don't."

"Yes, you do." He said with a little more authority. He knew he was treading on dangerous ground when he would talk to… anyone like that, but he had to.

"No I don't." Kim replied starting to get annoyed.

Arguing just wasn't going to work. Unless he told her why she "supposedly" had to go, Wade had no hope of changing Kim's mind.

"You do…" he trailed off before finishing, although very quietly. "You do have to go because I told Ron that you said you would meet him there."

It took a moment for it to process in her mind what she had just heard. Only seconds later she was on her feet looking down at the fourteen year old on the screen. "You did what!" she yelled, more than a little shocked.

Wade went on explaining to her what his intentions the last few weeks were and what had brought him to doing what he had just told her he had done. Kim quietly listened as she went around the room, taking her belongings out of the drawers and closet, as well as the bathroom. Once he finished telling his tale, she stopped beside the bed.

"How soon would you be able to get a ride down here?" she asked, her voice not giving any indication of what she was thinking.

Wade started typing. "Twenty minutes." He said with a smile, realizing that she may go after all.

She nodded. "Then I'll be out there waiting for it. Before you go I have two things I want to say. First off, don't do this again… ever."

"Gotcha."

"And secondly," she allowed a small smile to form on her face. "Thank you." Kim said before signing off and setting the device down on the bed while she changed into her mission outfit.

Kim stopped when it came time to put on her shoes, wondering if she should where the bulky boot or not. Without knowing why, she decided not to and stuffed it into the bag. It did feel a little funny standing on it after so long of not but it went away. After throwing all her things into bag, she walked (or more accurately, limped) back over to the desk and wrote a note to leave for her family, who were out having lunch, telling them were she had gone.

Ripping the paper off the notepad and folding it, she grabbed her bag off the bed and headed out the door stopping at her parents' room. She put the bag down on in front of the door and slipped the note into the side of it where it could be easily seen. Leaving her bag, she headed downstairs to turn in the key to her room at the desk and catch her ride.

Kim was not going to be coming back after this mission was over.

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**AN:** well, here it is… finally. Sorry it took a little while to get it up. I've been pretty busy lately. Hope you like it though! Thanks for all your reviews too! I really appreciate them!


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: To the Point of No Return**

Anne walked down the hall by herself, heading back towards her room. She had been dropped off at the hotel while her husband and the twins' went to someplace that was doing something that had to do with rockets. She didn't know what it was for; she just knew it had something to do with that. Rockets just weren't her thing, and never would be.

The silence permeating the hall was almost too much for her. It was just too quiet here compared to the clamor that she was most familiar with. It just felt like there was something missing. But what could a little quiet time to herself hurt? It wasn't like she got a lot of it now days. The more she thought about it, it had been since before Kim was born that she had been able to do something for herself. She had been too wrapped up in her responsibilities and work to be able to have any. Maybe she could go check on Kim and see if she was up to going out and just doing stuff that they normally didn't get to do together.

Thinking about her daughter made her worry. Ever since that mission back in June she hadn't been herself, though she would never say anything about it. Anne didn't want to force it out of her so she just let it be, hoping Kim would eventually do it on her own. Besides, she already had an inkling of what was going on, but to save her any sort of embarrassment it may cause, she kept quiet.

Anne was just about to reach into her pocket for the key card when she noticed that Kim's bag was sitting on floor just in front of her feet. She didn't notice the note until the door had opened and it landed on her foot. Picking up the bag and the note, she walked into the room. She went over to the mini dinner table in the corner of the room and sat down in the chair, setting the bag down on the table as she read the note.

_Mom and Dad,_

_You're more than likely wondering why I left my things in front of your door right now. I'm not going to lie to you about this. By the time you read this I'll probably be about a quarter of the way to Canada. Why? Well, I'll just say that Drakken still doesn't want to give up. I know what you're thinking mom. That I shouldn't be going on a mission with my leg in the condition it is. I thought about that too, but I think I can handle it. Actually, if it wasn't for a certain genius I know, I would still be sitting around in my room right now feeling sorry for myself. I won't go into details about that right now cause my rides going to be here soon. That still doesn't answer why my things were sitting in front of your room, though you probably have an idea why by now, but I'll tell you anyway. After this is over, I'm not going to be coming back to Florida. Instead I'm going to go home. I'm sorry, but I just can't go back, especially after this mission, if you get what I mean. Don't worry; I have a spare key to the house. Love you all and see you next month!_

_Kim_

Anne didn't know what to think when she finished reading the letter Kim left. She was a little upset that Kim agreed to go on a mission, but she could tell from reading that she had her reasons for doing so. As far as the going home, she understood completely. She had understood since before they left to come down to Florida, possibly sooner than that. From the start she knew that forcing Kim to go with them would be a mistake.

I mean, who would want to leave their closest friend behind for a whole summer when only days earlier new feelings for each other had been discovered? This was supposed to be a time that the two young lovers should be spending together, cherishing every moment of it, not separated and miserable.

She would never admit it, but Anne had been wondering what took so long for Kim to finally get it in her head to go home.

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_I can do anything, I can do anything, I can do anything…_

_And that includes going up against Shego times a hundred with a healing leg!_

It seemed like it had been months ago when she had thought something similar to what she was thinking about. Only then she was telling herself she could make it to the end of summer. It was clear to her then that she couldn't, but she didn't have the will then to do anything about it. If it weren't for the "mistake" her younger friend had made, it was very likely she still wouldn't. That wasn't what was bothering her though. It was doubt that she could go through with this mission without getting hurt again that was making her feel uneasy.

If she had been wearing her super suit instead of her olive cargoes and black crop top, Kim would have had a bit more confidence in herself. Unfortunately, that suit was still hanging in a vault in her closet at home… some thousand miles away. There was no time to get it now. She would just have to deal with what she had.

It didn't help that she hadn't wanted to do this in the first place. In fact, even though she hadn't said anything aloud, when Wade had asked her the night before if she would go on this mission, she had thought he was a little crazy. Of all people, he would have taken into consideration her condition and assume that she would have to refuse it, even if it meant she wouldn't be able to finish off something that she started out with. But that was just what she thought. Only a few hours ago had she figured out there was more to it than what she thought, and that was why she was in the back of a cargo jet getting ready to jump (which she was not looking forward to for once).

Kim sighed, shaking her head in wonderment. Looking up at the ceiling, she asked, "You couldn't just say something could you? Had to be creative and help us the hard way like this, didn't you?"

At that moment the pilot leaned in through the open door to the cockpit. "We'll be over in two."

"Thanks." She said, managing a small smile.

As soon as the door closed, Kim stood up, shakily and fell over when she leaned to hard on her bad leg. Grabbing onto a nearby box, she slowly made her way back up. _Oh, this is going to be fun_. She thought sarcastically to herself.

Air came rushing in when she opened the door, nearly knocking her back to the floor. She stepped back up to the edge, just enough that she could see the ground. A shiver ran down her spine, and it had nothing to do with the cold. One of the things that she usually got enjoyment out of was making her feel uneasy now that she realized she could get really hurt, even more than she already was.

The pilot opened the door back up. "You ready? We'll be over in thirty seconds."

Gulping, she got out as steadily as she could manage, "As I'll ever be."

"K. Go whenever you're ready." He said coming up behind her, ready to close the hatch as soon as Kim jumped out.

A flash of what happened the last time she did this came rushing back to her. How she had enough confidence that she would be able handle Drakken and Shego on her own. How everything had been going so well until what seemed like a wall came crashing down on her and later on, when she had came up with a statement that sounded oddly familiar yet was so true:

_Ron, I couldn't save the world without you._

The idea that that could happen all over again scarred her more than she would have liked it to. Almost to the point where she wanted to close the hatch herself and forget about doing any of this at all. Only one thing kept her from doing that. If anything did happen to her this time, she wouldn't be alone. This time, someone who loved her would be ready and willing to do whatever it took to keep her out of harms way.

Closing her eyes tightly and taking a deep breath, Kim jumped out of the jet into the air, aiming herself towards a large gated area dotted with dark gray buildings…

…towards the only person she would ever do something this dangerous for.

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"Shego, can you believe it? In just a few hours, Canada will be mine, and no one, not even Kim Possible, will be able to stop me! Isn't it exciting?" Drakken said enthusiastically as they neared their destination.

"Believe me, Doc. On the inside, I'm happy for you." She said dully, keeping her eyes ahead as she steered the hamburger bun shaped flying car.

His giddy expression immediately turned into a frown. "I thought…"

Shego took her eyes away from the haze of the distant horizon to look Drakken right in the eyes. "Whatever you thought, you thought wrong. I'm still upset that I let you get away with making a copy of me," she nodded toward the back where her clone was sitting silently, watching them. "Now you have my entire DNA on that thing of yours and can make as many of me as you want!" Shego went back to staring at the horizon. "I'd take that thing away from you right now, but my hands are a little full."

If there was a corner, Drakken would have shrunk into it. In the back of his mind, during those two weeks or so that he had been working on his invention, he knew that Shego wasn't going to agree to having clones made of her. She had made that clear plenty of times. But since she didn't seem to be bothered by the prospect of it the day before, he thought that she was all right with it.

One look in those fiery green eyes threatening to bore holes through him, and he knew that wasn't the case.

"I may not be able to take care of that ray thingy of yours, but I'm not the only one capable of doing that."

Drakken clutched his masterpiece to his chest and gasped.

"Other me," she said turning to look at her clone and nodding for her to come over to her. "Go get that thingy from his hands burn it up for me, would you?"

Nodding her assent, the clone Shego went over to Drakken, standing over him as he cowered. Without a word, she went down, swiping her leg under him. When he fell over and dropped his clone maker, she went and picked it up, not wasting a second to light up her hand. When the glow went away, nothing was left on her hand.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Drakken cried, on his knees reaching out towards the empty hand. "Shego, how could you! How am I supposed to take over Canada now?" He sounded like he was on the verge of crying.

"Don't know. All I know is that were going on this alone and with… me." She said, not knowing exactly what to call her other self. "It can't be that hard, since Kimmie's out of the picture. She can be stubborn, but she's not stupid enough to go on something like this maimed." Shego looked back over at Drakken, who still didn't look convinced. "Look at it this way. If she can take down your henchmen…"

"You're kidding right?"

She groaned. "Ok, let's just say they're actually good. If she can take out hundreds of them without glow power, I think me and me, who have glow power, can take an army on our own."

Drakken looked disappointed. "I guess. But what am I going to do? Stay out of the way and watch you two get to have all the fun?"

"Exactly." Shego grinned.

Drakken slouched down beside Shego's clone and crossed his arms.

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**AN:** here it is! Sorry it took so long. Been busy and all, but hey, it's up!


	9. Chapter 9

**AN: **ok, I'm really sorry it took so long to put this chapter up, but here it is now. I've been occupied lately and trying to figure out how I was going to go about this last chapter. All I can say is that I did my best to put this together and hope it turns out that way. Hope you like it!

_**A Summer Apart: Chapter 9: Showtime**_

Wait, in this case, would mean to remain inactive in readiness or expectation.

Ron was tired of waiting. Usually waiting entailed sitting or standing around doing nothing in particular, you were just there. To him, waiting was starting to get boring, and he was tired of being bored. In his mind, he had had enough of that the past month. He wanted some action, to do something useful with his time. Most of all though, he was tired of waiting to see Kim.

He took out the Kimmunicator that had been sent to him just before he had left home that morning. It looked exactly the same as Kim's only it was dark silver so that the two wouldn't get mixed up. He pressed the call button and Wade instantly appeared on the screen. "Hey Ron, what up?" Wade asked cheerily.

"Nothing. How much longer until Drakken and Shego show up?"

Wade turned to another console and started typing up something, before turning back. "Not much longer. They're about seven miles south of your position going about eighty miles an hour, so I'd say somewhere close to five minutes."

Ron nodded. "Ok, what about Kim?"

"Uh…" Wade turned back to the other console and did the same thing again. "About fifteen minutes behind Drakken and Shego."

"Ok, thanks Wade."

"No problem." He said before the screen switched off and Ron stuffed the device back into his pocket.

Rufus chose that moment to pop out of the other pocket, looking up at Ron, who looked back down at him. "What do you think, buddy? Can I handle Shego for a few minutes until Kim gets here?"

"Uh huh" he replied nodding vigorously.

"I hope so too." He said smiling. "After all, I would at least like to get out of here without injury, or in the very least, still alive. Fifteen minutes… yea, I think I can handle that, and even if I can't, I have a whole army I can go to for help." Just then, he could hear the sound of a motor nearing and landing before shutting off. A quick glance around the corner proved that the enemy had arrived. Ron stood up and looked at Rufus. "Ok, it's show time." His only response was a quick nod before going back into his pocket.

Ron watched as Drakken and Shego, and a new addition that looked like Shego's twin, or in this case, clone, stepped out of the small aircraft. The "twins" seemed to be taking the lead, while Drakken stayed back, sulking it seemed. Patiently, he waited just inside the building for them to come in. It didn't take long, since they were looking for the people, and this was one of the places where they could be found. He could tell they were surprised that the door had been left slightly open, as if waiting for them to just waltz in there.

"Ok, you got it Dr.D? You stay out here and stand guard where it's safe and out of the way while I take care of this." Shego clearly said.

Drakken grumbled. "Hmm, yes. But what am I supposed to do if someone does come? You know just as well as I do that I have no fighting skill."

"Good point. Ok, other me, stay here and baby-sit Drakken. Make sure he causes no trouble, and don't let anyone in here. When I'm finished, I'll come out and help then we can move on, you got that?"

There was no response, but it could be assumed that she had nodded her understanding. That could be testified when only seconds later, the door was blown down in a Shego-like fashion, that being violently. She stood just inside the entrance, looking around the large lit up area. Cautiously, she walked in further, ready for someone to jump out at her.

"You know Shego, you never struck me as the sneaky type. Always thought you were more… outgoing I think is the word I'm looking for.

She stopped in her tracks and turned around. "What! What are you doing here?" Shego exclaimed, completely shocked by Ron's presence.

"Hey, once this is all said and done, do you think I could get to know your sister out there?"

It took a moment for Shego to break out of her trance. A grin immediately spread across her face. "To answer, I don't think Kimmie would appreciate finding you 'getting to know' someone who looks just like me. Might get a little jealous if you know what I mean."

"Got me on that one. It probably wouldn't be worth the trouble anyway if she's anything like you." Ron said to himself, emphasizing the last part.

Shego raised her right eyebrow and narrowed her eyes. "What's that supposed to mean, 'anything like you'?"

"Well, you're ill-tempered, malicious, volatile, unfriendly, hotheaded, sinister, surly, fatal, sarcastic, unruly, haughty, irritable, looking like you're about to hurt me with you're freaky glowing hands…"

Shego forced out a chuckle. "Ohhhhh, you got that right!"

"I think I'll start running for my life now." He said before running off to the side avoiding the green fire that was thrown at him.

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_What kind of place is this? No scenery, just fields and dirt and blue cloudy sky? Plain concrete buildings? These people have a bad taste when it comes to landscaping and architecture. Then again, it is an army base, so nobody probably cares about those little things. Sigh. Why am I out here thinking to myself again? Oh, yes, so I can stay out of Shego's way. Since when did she make herself the boss of __**me**__? Of my evil scheme? No one bosses me around but my mother! That's right, nobody! And how dare she ruin my new toy. I highly doubt that she and my only clone of her can handle thousands of strong, armed men who were trained for combat, no matter what she says. I better not let her hear me say that or it'll be a one way trip to the hospital for me. I can still feel the burns from the last time she had that chip stuck on her neck. Shiver. And what did I do anyway to deserve those? Nothing! I tried to be sympathetic when she was crying about that broken nail, still kept her around whenever she was acting all lovey dovey even though it freaked me out, and to top it all off, apologized __**and**__ offered to make her dinner! For what! More burns, days in bed because I was so sore I couldn't move a muscle, and more doctors visits! Another sigh. Hmm, maybe her clone isn't as bad tempered and inconsiderate of others. I guess I could stop talking to myself and strike up a conversation. Definitely better than doing nothing while we wait. Heck, she even looks nicer than Shego, just standing there innocently keeping watch. Ok, I'll do it. Just take it easy, ease into it. Don't want to get ahead of myself now._

Drakken started whistling and rocking back and forth on his feet, looking up at the sky. The whistling caught the clones' attention and she turned to look at him. "What are you doing?"

That was the first time he had heard her talk. Even he hadn't been sure if the clones would be able to communicate. "You… you can talk?"

"Well duh, what does it sound like I'm doing?"

He blinked twice, and then frowned. _Still the same Shego. Well, maybe not, that was kind of a stupid question. Let's try that again. _"So, Shego 2… can I call you that?"

She nodded.

"Ah, good. So, would you mind telling me exactly why Shego had you destroy my clone maker? Of all people, you would be able to decipher her thoughts best, is that right."

"Yes, that is correct. But since those events occurred after I was created, I would not know for sure. Since I have the same mind as my forbearer, the best I could do is guess at what she was thinking when she commanded me to destroy your latest invention. Would you like me to tell you that?"

"Yes! Please tell!"

"I will be doing a memory replay, sort of. The thing is, Shego would never admit or tell exactly her reasons or feelings about doing things, so neither can I. What I can do is give hints." She paused. "Do you still want me to give them to you?"

_This is definitely Shego's clone alright. Teasing me and getting me all worked up. Does seem somewhat nicer about it though._ "OK, fine. Give them to me, though I doubt I'll be able to get it. I'm terrible at guessing."

"Exactly, that's why she never tells you outright. Ok, here's the first one:

"**You don't know when to stop do you?"**

"**Neither do you!"**

"**Got that right."**

"Huh? Where did that one come from?" Drakken asked, confusion evident in his voice.

"Oh, that's right. You wouldn't know that one since you weren't there, at least technically speaking. That was on the night you almost took over the world with your diablo things. It was between Shego and Kim while they were fighting outside before the tower was…"

"Don't remind me! Just go on!"

"**Are you saying I'm going soft?!"**

"**As a marshmallow."**

"Hey, I remember that! That was when she left me hanging off of my, my… whatever it was called. It was after I rescued her from her brothers and that freaky bird guy."

"Aviarius."

"What?"

"Aviarius. That's the bird guys' name, or at least what he goes by."

"Whatever, that's not the point. What's the next one?"

_**Blah blah blah. If you ask me this is going to be another plan to put under the failure file.**_

Drakken scrunched up his face trying to figure out where he had heard that before. It did sound familiar. "Umm, you mind telling me what that one was all about? I'm a little lost on this one."

"Sorry. About that one…" she kind of looked away, which to Drakken was kind of odd being that Shego never did that. "Those are thoughts that she usually has whenever you start ranting on about your new take over the world schemes."

"Really? But she never said…"

"Yes, she has, just not that much, and with so much on your mind your likely to forget she ever said it anyway."

"Oh." He said, slightly hurt, even though what Shego always thought of his plans remained true time and time again. It still hurt to hear it. He walked over to the door and peeked in, only to barely miss being hit by a flaming green ball of plasma. After waiting a few seconds, he more cautiously looked in, very quickly finding Shego. _Do you really think that little of me? Why do you even bother staying—the buffoon? What is he doing here?_

"What happened Drakken? Shego kick you out and left you some company?"

Drakken turned around so quickly that he could not only feel, but heard his neck pop. He started rubbing it where he felt it. "Ah. What are you doing here! I thought that you were…"

"Injured? Yea, I still am, but obviously, I'm here anyway. Got better real quick, but I'm still limping a little though. Now, I have a little surprise for Shego, so you can let me in now." Kim told a very surprised Drakken.

Shego 2 stepped up. "I don't think that will be happening." She said, starting up her powers (would they really be hers since she's a clone?).

Kim smiled and wagged her finger in front of the Shego 2. "Uh, uh, uh." She sing-songed before snapping her fingers. Within seconds, they were surrounded by armed men that had been hiding at the sides of the building. "I think I would reconsider. Messing with me is fine, but I'm hurt as it is, so I asked these guys for some help. I don't think you would want to fight with them now, would you?"

Despite the slight pain that was still in his neck, Drakken shook his head vigorously. "No no no, no we would never want to do that, isn't that right She… Shego? No!"

A beam struck Shego 2 just as she was about to jump for the first soldier and she instantly froze in place.

"Don't worry. That was just a stun ray, as you could probably assume. These guys here offered to just end you for good, but being the person I am, I said no. I don't like the killing thing. Now, are you going to let me in there or not? If not, you're more than welcome to join your clone here." Kim explained.

He started shaking his head again. "Jus… just go in. And please just take me now!" it seemed that he was on the verge of tears. "Take me now so I don't have to watch my plan crumble to pieces again! Just take me!" he cried out on his knees as Kim slipped in through the door.

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"Hey! Watch where you're aiming those things!" Ron yelled at Shego when the plasma brushed by his leg, burning a hole through the side of his pants. "I've only got a few of these!" He watched as it flew out the door.

"That's the point! I'm supposed to hit you!" She tripped over something on the ground and fell forward. "Just because you lack the skill that Princess has doesn't mean you get a get out of jail free card. Now where are you?" Shego called back, looking around to see where he had gotten to.

"Look up."

Shego did look up, only to land backwards on the floor when Ron jumped onto her. He rolled over so that Shego was on top of him. "I did not appreciate that insult." He said before flipping Shego over him, making her land hard on the concrete foundation. He took the moment to check what time it was. _Ok, Kim should be here any second now._

"You waiting for Kimmie to show up?" Shego remarked when she caught Ron glancing at his wrist. "Don't count on it."

"What do you mean?"

The glow power faded from Shego's hands. "You mean she didn't tell you?"

"Tell me what?"

Shego chuckled almost to herself at first, before laughing out loud. "You're telling me, that she didn't tell you what happened last time she came after us? Wow, this is… wow."

"Just tell me!"

"Ok, ok. Relax." She said as she regained her composure. "Ok, here's what happened. About six weeks ago, Kimmie decided to pay me and Drakken a little visit. You know about that at least don't you?"

Ron nodded.

"OK, so, while we were fighting, I realized that you were gone, so I used that against her. I asked her where you were. While I had her distracted, I got her just under a stack of some of Drakken's crates. Some new stuff he ordered, I have no idea what it was. Anyway, after I told it was too bad you could be there to help her, I hit that stack just right so that they landed on her. It was obvious that I hurt her, but we weren't sure exactly how or how bad it was since we had left immediately after. Some digging around and I found out that she ended it with a broken leg and twisted ankle. Sorry to break the news to ya, but you were going to find out sooner or later."

"I don't believe you."

Shego looked back in disbelief. "I'm telling the truth. I may be a villain, but I'm not a liar… most of the time anyway. I'm telling you though, I hurt her, and so the chances of her showing up are not likely, almost impossible."

Ron looked around behind Shego. "I still don't believe you because… well, you'll see in a minute."

She looked at him, bewildered. "What? What's that supposed to mean?"

"Shego, I'm disappointed in you. I'd thought you would know by now that nothing's impossible for me, I'm Kim Possible. I can do anything."

Shego turned around and came face to face with the green-eyed redhead, her eyes widening in shock and surprise. "But… but your…" she pointed down at Kim's leg. "You can't be here. You're hurt."

"Uh, check again." Kim said before kicking Shego hard in the midsection, knocking the breath out of her before she fell to the ground unconscious.

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A tall muscular man barged in the room after the person who was taking care of Drakken, that is, putting him in a temporary holding cell. "Andy, sir, hold up." He called.

Andy turned around, still holding onto Drakken with one hand to make sure he didn't go anywhere. "What is it Matt?"

"The green lady, the one we hit with the stun ray… she won't move, and it's already been way past the time for the ray to wear off." He said in a sort of panic. "What should I do?"

Before Andy could reply, Drakken spoke up. "Don't do anything. You can't save her. She's not even real."

"What are you talking about blue boy?" Andy asked almost threateningly, forcing Drakken to face him.

"She was a clone. What probably happened is that the real Shego was knocked unconscious. It's one of the things I couldn't overcome. Whenever the source of the clone is unconscious, for some reason the clone goes unconscious too. I'm not even really sure why that happens myself, so don't ask me why."

Andy nodded then turned to Matt. "Do whatever you wish with the clone, but before that, take some guys with you and get the real one first."

"Yes sir." Matt said before going back out the door.

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They looked down on the unmoving figure of Shego lying on the ground. It had taken only one blow to the abdomen to take her out, something that neither remembered ever happening before. It was almost… unbelievable. Both took there eyes off of Shego when they remembered they weren't alone, and they looked into each others eyes.

"I guess I wore her out?" Ron shrugged, not knowing what else to say.

For probably the first time in over a month, Kim smiled, if for no reason than just to do so. At that moment, everything on her mind was forgotten as she focused on the person looking back at her, also smiling. All her worries, even the slight ache in her leg, were gone. It was only seconds before they found themselves hugging each other tightly, unwilling to let the other go.

"I missed you." They said simultaneously.

They continued holding onto each other for a few more minutes, oblivious to the men that were carrying Shego out of the building. Finally, they pulled away so that they could look at each other.

The smile faded from Kim's face. "You know, what Shego told you wasn't a lie. She was telling the truth."

"You mean what she said happened to you on that last mission? You look just fine to me, and besides, you would have told me… right?" The guilty look on her face and the fact she was looking away told Ron otherwise.

"I'm so sorry. I was going to tell you, but…" she paused trying to gather her thoughts. "I didn't want you to think my getting hurt was your fault. It was mine. I was stupid enough to think I could handle one mission on my own and I ended up paying the consequences. I knew you weren't going to be there but I went anyway. That and I didn't want you to worry about me since it seemed you were doing just fine."

Silence.

Ron sighed. "OK, you were right. I probably would have blamed myself for not being there or keeping my phone with me… As far as being fine… how do I say this…I lacked any motivation to do anything. Most of the time I was just hangin around my house wondering what I would be doing if you were around. Sure, I would have blamed myself if you told me, but in the long run all it would do is… never mind, I'm not helping myself on that point. But still, that doesn't excuse you from not saying something that's important. I would've understood."

"And that's why I'm sorry. Of course, you didn't bother telling me about your 'lack of motivation' sitch either." Kim retorted, exaggerating a little on the last part.

"So I guess that makes us even then." Ron said, wrapping an arm around her and pulling her back to him.

"I guess so." She replied, before they kissed for the first time in what seemed like forever.

When finished, they walked outside. The sun was starting to set and there was a soft warm breeze. The myriads of stars above shone brightly as the sky began to darken. They stopped after walking a little ways more once they left behind the gated area. There they met there ride that would take them back home. Ron turned to Kim. "I guess you're going back to Florida with your family." He looked down, seemingly disappointed.

Kim just smiled. "No, I'm not. I'm going back home so I can spend the rest of what's left of summer with you."

He looked back, this time happier than before. "Really? Wait… no, I can't let you do that just for me. Your family is more important. You should go back to them." The excitement that was there only moments before was gone as instantly as it came, but this time with a little bit of hope.

She shook her head. "I'm not doing this only for you. I'm doing this for me too. You weren't the only one miserable—"

"Lacking motivation." He corrected, holding up a finger toward her.

"Same thing. Anyway, I was just as miserable as you were. Besides, I already left a note with my 'rents that I wouldn't be coming back, so they aren't expecting me." She explained, starting to walk again.

"So… you're coming home?" Ron asked, following her.

"I'm going ho— ow!" she cried, bending over to clutch her leg after tripping over a stray rock and landing to hard on it.

Ron quickly rushed over to her and picked her up, ready to carry her the rest of the way to their ride home whether she liked it or not. "You know, I was wondering why it was you came on this mission anyway if you were still hurt. I mean, unless you have the ability to heal yourself faster than normal."

"I think we can save that story for later." Kim said, wrapping her arms around his neck and leaning against him. "For now, I just want to spend time with you.

He was about to object but she silenced him with a light kiss on the lips. "Not right now. I want you to help me feel better." She moved her leg a little for emphasis.

"Fine. But only for a pri—"he was interrupted when Kim gave him another kiss, this one deeper than the last and enough to make him stop walking.

She pulled back, but only a little. "I promise you more of those if you help me." She whispered, grinning.

No answer was necessary. He had already started walking towards the awaiting jet, this time faster than before. "I think I can wait a little while."

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**AN:** and there it is! Hope it was worth the wait. I'll I have left is the epilogue and I'm done, and I promise, that will be out way sooner than two or three months from now.


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